Can't afford to get my wing repaired, so thought I'd just have a bit of fun... (Commissioned decal myself LOL)

To be fair how many cars from any manufacturer last for 18 years?

1 minute ago, mjt said:

To be fair how many cars from any manufacturer last for 18 years?

My mum's Toyota Yaris, 21 years old and rust free! 😀

Even for Toyota that's pretty exceptional I'd say.

2 minutes ago, mjt said:

Even for Toyota that's pretty exceptional I'd say.

Not really, I've owned 2 x Celicas, and a Supra, admittedly the oldest was only 15 years when we parted company, but still rust free...

The Rust is mandatory.
 

My old 2007 work beater needs 2 new front wings. They’ve rotted completely through at the bottom and I’ve taped over the large holes with duct tape and then painted over the tape with touch up paint to make it less noticeable ....and to pass the MOT (wings are not structural but will still fail if the holes not covered over). 
 

Local garage with mechanics that look like they’re out the 1972 movie Deliverance say they’ll swap the wings for just a £60 labour charge if I can find some cheap in the right colour (Tonic blue).

5 minutes ago, Hooded said:

...say they’ll swap the wings for just a £60 labour charge if I can find some cheap in the right colour (Tonic blue).

That's a good price. I got the driver wing replaced 2 years as part of an 'insurance' package when some lady parked into my car. I can get a new wing (Europarts) for £55 but the cheapest quote I can get for fit & paint is about £200. I know for many £255 is loose change behind the sofa, but now that's way out of my reach, hence I decided to make a feature of it... 🤣

16 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

That's a good price. I got the driver wing replaced 2 years as part of an 'insurance' package when some lady parked into my car. I can get a new wing (Europarts) for £55 but the cheapest quote I can get for fit & paint is about £200. I know for many £255 is loose change behind the sofa, but now that's way out of my reach, hence I decided to make a feature of it... 🤣

Yeah I’m quite happy with that price, it’s just a case of waiting for the wings to Crop up on eBay second hand in the right colour now. I’ve seen them for around £50 in the wrong colour (red etc) but Tonic blue is rarer and I’d rather not have the extra expense of painting them on an old beater. 
 

For now Im going for the opposite of your feature  ....stealth with the tape and touch up paint 😆

Doesn't the MOT man have a say in severe rust/rot on the upper car these days ? Always been the norm for the MOT man to check for rot on the chassis, but I'm sure if the MOT man has good reason to check rot on panels to see if it is a real hazard, lets say if a pedestrian hit the car and the degraded panel collapsed in, resulting loss of fingers or if you've got a big plonka

Have you pressed the rusted area to see if its just paint that is keeping it in place ?

1 hour ago, Ian Lanc said:

Doesn't the MOT man have a say in severe rust/rot on the upper car these days ? Always been the norm for the MOT man to check for rot on the chassis, but I'm sure if the MOT man has good reason to check rot on panels to see if it is a real hazard, lets say if a pedestrian hit the car and the degraded panel collapsed in, resulting loss of fingers or if you've got a big plonka

Have you pressed the rusted area to see if its just paint that is keeping it in place ?

I asked the MOT man from Deliverance when I got a quote for changing the wings and he said if it’s taped over it’ll pass cus it’s not a structural part of the car. 
 

There’s actually nothing keeping it in place, there’s a big hole at the bottom of the wing you could almost fit a cats head through. It’s taped over with strong duct tape and the tape is painted over. The structural part of the car behind the outer wing is not rotten or corroded I’ve checked and the actual wing itself isn’t loose which is also important for the MOT. 

Did an inquiry at our local MOT station yesterday and he said any holed/rotted/extensive corrosion body panels will be a failure because such defective parts can cause injuries and will not be a pass until such panel/s is repaired to the original surroundings, he failed one car the other day because a side rubbing strip was half off and couldn't be pushed back in place, car owner then just ripped it off, MOT man said it's still a failure because of the line of exposed metal clips which will inflict injury/grazing to a pedestrian, he even failed a car due to a missing door handle...........Becomes a mine field these days with MOT's! 

2 hours ago, Ian Lanc said:

Did an inquiry at our local MOT station yesterday...

You should direct them to the actual government requirements for an MOT rust inspection...

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles/appendix-a-structural-integrity-and-corrosion

Oh, and anyone turning up to an MOT test with a bit of hanging off external trim is an idiot!

 

2 hours ago, Ian Lanc said:

Did an inquiry at our local MOT station yesterday and he said any holed/rotted/extensive corrosion body panels will be a failure because such defective parts can cause injuries and will not be a pass until such panel/s is repaired to the original surroundings, he failed one car the other day because a side rubbing strip was half off and couldn't be pushed back in place, car owner then just ripped it off, MOT man said it's still a failure because of the line of exposed metal clips which will inflict injury/grazing to a pedestrian, he even failed a car due to a missing door handle...........Becomes a mine field these days with MOT's! 

The covered hole on my wing is right at the bottom at the lowest point of the car. My MOT man said it’s a pass if it’s taped over so I’ll be ok if I don’t get chance to change the wings before then ☺️

This MOT rust debate is a mere distraction.

I fully expect my few rust bubbles to be an MOT pass, though I'm expecting my lovely new LED bulbs to cause a query, and fully expect it to fail on something I haven't even thought about.

For decades I have given up predicting what an MOT tester will fail on, but rather just present the car as is, and fix whatever they want fixed... I'll report back in 4 weeks after my MOT test.

Sadly a lot of cars get incorrectly failed because people just trust the tester to know the regs.

Annoyingly, when you look & sound like I do, testers won't back down even when provided with evidence from DVSA.  

I'd never put a car in without checking as much I could beforehand.

13 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I'd never put a car in without checking as much I could beforehand.

That's why I have never understood the 'mainland' system of doing an MOT, which is done by a normal 'garage' that also has a license to do an MOT. In NI, all MOT centers are government run, all they do is MOT tests, there is no 'fixing/repairing' of cars so no incentive to advise, or write down a failure in the hope of getting follow up funds in fixing it.

It's not perfect, but I've always been trustful of their integrity.

4 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

...there is no 'fixing/repairing' of cars so no incentive to advise, or write down a failure in the hope of getting follow up funds in fixing it.

It wasn't even that.  The testers just didn't understand the wording in the manual.

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Oh, and anyone turning up to an MOT test with a bit of hanging off external trim is an idiot!

I'm laughing at this one! An old friend of mine was a touring car freak back in the late 90's, he had a Sierra 4x4 and removed both wiper blades, welded over the wiper arm holes, made himself a new hole bang in the middle and fitted one motor with a direct on/off switch, switching on the wiper it went very fast, MOT man failed his car because of his mod.....lol

How have you got rust there?!

 

To be fair, my ‘07 Fiesta is rust free (bit of surface rust underneath but nothing on the bodywork). Usually arch rust is just down to damage and/or trapped moisture. Treat stone chips and keep the inside of the arches clean and rust shouldn’t become a major issue (touch wood)!

6 minutes ago, dontpannic said:

How have you got rust there?!

 

I have no idea, but the driver wing (before I got it replaced) had rust in the same position - and I have seen many old Focus with the same issue!

1 minute ago, StephenFord said:

I have no idea, but the driver wing (before I got it replaced) had rust in the same position - and I have seen many old Focus with the same issue!

Got to be a moisture trap there somewhere. 
 

My old E46 had rust bubbles coming through on one of the rear arches and that turned out to be caused by a previous poor repair trapping moisture. 

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

I have no idea, but the driver wing (before I got it replaced) had rust in the same position - and I have seen many old Focus with the same issue!

Yours have gone on the opposite end of the wings to mine.

Mine have gone like this at the bottom.

Note: That is not an actual picture of my car, but it’s very similar to how mine looked before I covered the hole with duct tape and painted. 

2 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I have no idea, but the driver wing (before I got it replaced) had rust in the same position - and I have seen many old Focus with the same issue!

Is it coming from the inside ? Our old 405 had rust on one wing, was always touching it up, decided to get angry with it and got my stanley knife at it, there was several tiny holes, taking the wheel off and liner it was a mass of rust.

13 hours ago, Ian Lanc said:

Is it coming from the inside ? Our old 405 had rust on one wing, was always touching it up, decided to get angry with it and got my stanley knife at it, there was several tiny holes, taking the wheel off and liner it was a mass of rust.

A familiar tale.

If you've got bubbles, then its coming from the back. Here's what appeared on the outside of my E46 rear arch:

 

and once the surface was cut away...

3 hours ago, dontpannic said:

A familiar tale.

and once the surface was cut away...

You still got the car ? My old Escort MKII looked just like that after cutting it all away 😞 When all the repairs was done I heated up thick grease until it went like water, then poured the stuff into any accessible areas on the inside, did that numerous times to build up the grease to keep out any condensation, after it stopped dribbling out, it was out with spray on underseal, that black stuff, went mad with it, all in a hope the inside will never rust again.